Gardening Articles: Flowers :: Roses

Hardy Tree Rose

by Charlie Nardozzi

Tree or standard roses make lovely focal points in the landscape, and they lend a formal touch when grown on either side of a doorway or along walkways. While great strides have been made in breeding hardier shrub and landscape roses, tree roses have not been reliably hardy in areas colder than USDA zone 5. In those areas you either have to fuss over protecting them outside in winter or bring them into a protected area.

Now all that has changed. Bailey Nursery has just introduced a tree rose that is hardy to USDA zone 4 without protection. The Northern Encore tree rose features 2-inch-diameter, soft pink, single flowers on a 4- to 8-foot-tall plant. The rose is disease resistant and flowers all summer. Unlike grafted tree roses, Northern Encore is the same variety from root to shoot, so if it dies back, any shoots from the rootstock will be the Northern Encore variety.